This is the most amazing “art gallery” – all of the images were produced by Princeton University in the course of science research. It offers a stunningly beautiful cross-section of art and science. The images were submitted for the First Annual Art of Science Competition at Princeton and you can view some of the submissions and the winners at today’s site.

When you get to the site you will see the first of three pages of images in the gallery. You’ll see photographs and microscopic images of wonders that include the Cygnus Nebula to individually marked ants used in a research study to virus-cell interactions. Click on the links at the bottom of the page to access additional years’ entries.

Whether black and white or drenched in neon colors these images are fascinating to behold.

This website provides free patterns that you can print, cut, fold and glue to make dozens of paper toys including architectural wonders, cars, animals, and more.

When you get to the site you’ll see a menu of the many patterns available including:

Apache Helicopter

Bill Gate’s House

Bruce Lee Paper Doll

Dale Earnhardt NASCAR #3

Eiffel Tower

Great Pyramid

Jimi Hendrix Guitar

Party Hat

Queen’s Crown

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Click on any one and a new page opens with the pattern to print along with instructions on how to assemble it.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! From the menu on the left side of the home page, under the advertisement, download the free e-book “22 FUN Activities for Kids.” This well-designed e-book includes colorful illustrations and instructions that your kids will love including:

Build A Tent City

Make Scratch Pictures

Make Soap Sculptures

Make Pinecone People

Make Water Globes

Make A Sock Puppet

Make A Friendship Bracelet

…and many more!

These are great indoor activities for bad weather days – plus, many of the projects make great gifts! Have fun!

Reference Desk – An archive of links to educational science websites, lesson plans, clip art resources and much more. We didn’t follow all of these links – so parent supervision, as always, is advised.

Puzzle Corner – This is a cool resource! Print out free word search and crossword puzzles on cells, invertebrates, the skeletal and muscular system, genetics, rocks and minerals, constellations and much, much more! Great material for DIY science activity books!

There is much more material for classroom teachers provided at this site. Much of it can be tweaked to suit homeschoolers.

Try your hand at being a police sketch artist with this interactive website originally created for Sanford’s “A Lifetime of Color” website. Along the way, visitors will discover the difference between the right brain and the left brain and how they work together in the world of a sketch artist.

After reading through the slide presentation that explains how the right brain and left brain interpret information differently, visitors are presented with two “crimes” to solve, The Toilet Paper Caper and Pushing Other People’s Buttons. Using the online PDArtist, students decide whether to rely on their right or left brain or both to create an image of the perpetrator. Using the online tool, they make decisions to choose the image that most closely represents what is remembered about the perpetrator regarding:

The shape of the head

The width of the eyes

The thickness of the eyebrows

The size of the nose and lips

The length of the hair

The choices available for each category depend on which side of the brain is chosen. This helps solidify an understanding of what information is processed with each side of the brain and what information artists use to create realistic images.

When you are done solving the crimes, there is one last assignment where the student can use the PDArtist to try to create an image of a friend or family member.

Not only is this website easy to navigate and a lot of fun trying to solve the mysteries but may also open the door to a new interest for any budding artist.

This site is devoted to the life’s work of “Snowflake Bentley,” a man who placed snowflakes under a microscope and photographed them. The images he captured will take your breath away.

When you get to the site, use the images to navigate to:

Read a short biography of Wilson A. Bentley

Find articles written by Bentley and additional resource about snowflakes

Explore the Bentley Exhibit

Select “Bentley Exhibit” then scroll down to the bottom of the page to find “Snowflake Display” to see images of Bentley’s snowflakes. Click on the snowflakes to enlarge them so you can see the amazing details.

Return to the “Bentley Exhibit” page and check out the virtual tour of the Jericho Historical Society’s Bentley Exhibit in Jericho, Vermont. Click on the frames on the wall to get a closer look at the displays. Before leaving the website, play the game to see if you can match the flakes.